My friend has a free forum with forumotion.com He wants to move the site, but the owner will not sell the database, does he have any rights to buy it? Thanks
they state they will not give a dump, but the TOS is worded poorly, "Everything is done to avoid any slowdown or unexpected downtime of the services, but it is not possible to guarantee these slowdowns, or to foresee any downtime. None network or server problem or any other breakdown can be covered under any warranty. None repayment can be considered for any break or stop of the services, damage or data loss. Several systems have been set up to ensure a security of the content. Thus, a backup of the whole data is done everyday. But for any reason, none individual backup or sql dump, database will be provided. Please do take good note that for any evoked reasons, no precise safeguard of a forum, dump, backup of the data will be provided. However, the administrator of the forum has at his disposal, a tool which allows him to use these backups in order to restore his board, such as it was at a previous date." I just wondered legally is there a way to force their hand?
This is why using free forum sites is never a good idea, they tend to back up their data in a big block that contains all the forums on their site rather than individual forums. Has your friend tried offering cash? A friend of mine used to use a free forum site and although they said they wouldnt give individual backups, although later changed that to saying they would cost $60-100 which is a reasonable cost. As for having a right to the data then personally I would say not at least not without paying a reasonable cost. Jen
well i told him to make an offer, and they state in the TOS the can restore forums to previous states, which i assume means individual backups. They are one of these sell details to third party sites. I did warn him when he started, and he didnt want to spend anything, thats what you get for being tight! So just a cash offer, and see how that goes!
Just for the record on IF, I had to pay over 120 to get a db dump. They charge like 35 every ten thousand posts and my forum had like 60 thousand posts or something. And also, the provider your friend is using is a known script. There are over 70 versions of it. I dont recommend using them.
This is why using free forum sites is never a good idea, they tend to back up their data in a big block that contains all the forums on their site rather than individual forums. Has your friend tried offering cash? A friend of mine used to use a free forum site and although they said they wouldnt give individual backups, although later changed that to saying they would cost $60-100 which is a reasonable cost. As for having a right to the data then personally I would say not at least not without paying a reasonable cost. Jen
Sorry for going off topic, but why did my earlier post get repeated exactly by kha_virus? Anyway let us know how it goes. Out of interest why does your friend want to move? Jen
My friend has finally got a vps and set his site up, the forum is linked to the free forum, but is sick of the restrictions, so he has been on at the forum host, then asked my advice (as I had none I came here lol) no idea when your posted was repeated lol